About this sheet
This is an original set of two antique steel engravings from the second volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850, sold together as a set and not available singly. The first sheet shows the domed hot room of a Turkish bath, light dropping through the glazed eyes in the vault onto a marble floor, attendants working over bathers on the central platform and figures resting in the alcoves around the walls. The second sheet shows the cooling room of a Constantinople bath house, a high domed hall with a fountain at its center, bathers wrapped in striped cloths resting on raised and railed galleries around the walls and attendants carrying linen below.
They are two original sheets sold together, and the set is never split. They come from the second volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, drawn from nature by Thomas Allom with descriptions by the Reverend Robert Walsh and published in London by Peter Jackson at the Caxton Press about 1850. Every sheet is a steel engraving of the same size, printed without color as issued, with the draftsman lettered at the lower left, the engraver at the lower right and the publisher's imprint beneath the title.
The hammam was the subject nineteenth century readers were most curious about. The architecture here, the pierced dome and the marble gobek tasi, is recorded accurately. The camekan or cooling room was where the bath ended and the sociable part began, and it is the room a visitor would have seen. Together the two plates give the complete sequence of a Turkish bath, which is why they are collected as a pair. A matched group hung together reads as one piece of furniture on a wall rather than as several small pictures, and because the sheets are the same size they frame identically and line up without compromise. Framed alike in plain dark moldings with equal mounts they suit a hall, a stair, a study or a dining room.
Even age toning throughout. Marked handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Scattered foxing in the margins of both sheets. All corners complete on every sheet.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
